cannabisnews.com: Obama To Permit Medical Marijuana Use





Obama To Permit Medical Marijuana Use
Posted by CN Staff on March 20, 2009 at 09:20:35 PT
By Martin Sieff
Source: United Press International
Washington, D.C. -- The Obama administration's decision to permit the local dispensation of marijuana in America if it is in compliance with local and state laws is a small move in a complicated jungle of conflicting U.S. legal regulations on drug policy. But many experts argue that it makes sense for a number of reasons and could lead to bigger changes down the road.The decision by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will not make the dispensation or purchase of marijuana legal in any of the 37 states where it is still banned by state law. But it removes a long-embarrassing complication in the 13 states, including California, where the dispensation and sale of the drug for medical purposes has been permitted.
Up to now, in those 13 states, state and local authorities permitted this trade, but federal authorities were committed to shutting it down.There were other complexities and contradictions. Because the FBI and other U.S. homeland security and law enforcement agencies are so stretched in dealing with violent crime and preventing terrorist attacks, the amount of manpower available around the country to battle the marijuana trade was very limited.In practice, in those 13 states, the Drug Enforcement Administration turned a blind eye to operations that were relatively small-scale, conformed with local laws in their dealings and did not try to sell marijuana to children or teenagers. The DEA focused its efforts on large-scale operations that had broader criminal dimensions and links. Given the DEA's limited resources, there was little else it could do.Marijuana appears to be quite effective in pain relief for cancer sufferers and also for some AIDS conditions. Although it is also often effective with victims of Alzheimer's disease, more negative symptoms -- such as loss of balance -- have been documented in such cases.Holder's decision cannot be seen in a vacuum. The Obama administration believes that white-collar crime in the United States was disastrously neglected by its predecessors in the Bush administration. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies were given no political encouragement to go after such malefactors in a big way, and the issue was dropped to the bottom of the priority list in favor of the war on terror and the war on drugs.The war on terror and issues of national security remain the top priority for U.S. law enforcement agencies. But the economic meltdown that has torpedoed the U.S. economy since September and the exposure of Bernard Madoff's $50 billion confidence trick investment scam have dramatically revealed the catastrophic ravages that such crimes and unregulated dealing have already inflicted on American society.U.S. President Barack Obama is determined to clean up that mess, but it will require a lot of agents, resources and financing to do it, and they will have to be taken from other areas. Cutting down on homeland security and terror prevention is out of the question, so seeking to move resources from crackdowns on supposedly less harmful drugs, especially those that are being used for medical purposes, seems an obvious place to start.Holder's move is a cautious and incremental one. The new policy will be monitored closely to see if it generates significant abuse or brings more widespread relief. It is likely to be initially broadly welcomed. And it may influence a significant number of state legislatures to liberalize their laws on medical drug use. If that happens, wider, bolder measures toward the decriminalization of marijuana or other currently banned substances may follow.Holder's move should therefore be seen as a cautious testing of the waters in the direction of increased tolerance and decriminalization in the United States' overall drug policies. For the first time since President Richard Nixon discounted the recommendation of experts he had appointed that marijuana be decriminalized nearly 40 years ago, a change in policy may be on the horizon.Complete Title: New Priorities Drive Holder, Obama To Permit Medical Marijuana UseSource: United Press International (Wire) Author: Martin SieffPublished: March 20, 2009Copyright 2009 United Press InternationalWebsite: http://www.upi.com/Contact: nationaldesk upi.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/xAFj2FZ8CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #30 posted by FoM on March 23, 2009 at 09:07:30 PT
Hope
Our areas hasn't had any problems with house prices since we are like you and are not from a big city. Neil Young - This Old House http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nsgp6_d22w
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Comment #29 posted by Hope on March 23, 2009 at 09:01:46 PT
Many an older widower or widow
has found that the investment that they made in their home has turned out to be a life saver with reverse mortgages. 
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Comment #28 posted by Hope on March 23, 2009 at 08:56:28 PT
Gambling....
Another thing, I learned, even as a child, that I had no gift for gambling of any kind. I've always thought I was "Lucky" to have learned that lesson early in life.Oh, the dimes and nickels I lost before I learned to not say, "I'll bet you!"The experiences made me more thoughtful and reasonable, about everything, I think.Housing prices around here seem to be stable still. Probably not in bigger cities where there are probably lots more of the ill mortgaged McMansions.I'm not sorry that I've stayed in my little "Starter" home. Occasionally, from time to time, my husband or I will burst into a verse or two of "This old house..." when we think about some of the things we need to do around here. "Fix the window pane" though, reminds me that we do need new, more modern windows. But, all in all, it's been a very good place to get in out of the weather.Investing in and securing good shelter, as early on in life as possible, is very important. 
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Comment #27 posted by FoM on March 23, 2009 at 07:57:17 PT
Hope
I don't know where we are headed but prices will keep going up because of the sinking dollar. Housing prices will rise again or there won't be any stability in the housing market. As far as the stock market goes it's just a form of legalized gambling. The casinos win but not those who gamble in my opinion. Buy a home when young and stick with it for years is way more secure then playing in the stock market. Rent will always go up and rent isn't deductible like the interest on a home. 
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on March 23, 2009 at 07:43:48 PT
How do you by a twenty five thousand dollar car?
Wait until it's older.Last car we bought, the dealer gave us an old silver dollar. He'd done it as part of his salesmanship for years. He said, "I always tell people, keep this silver dollar and in twenty years it will be worth more than the car you are buying today."I always think of him when I hear "Midnight Rider".:0)
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Comment #25 posted by Hope on March 23, 2009 at 07:37:28 PT
I saw it at the grocery store.
There's always been something very, very serious for me about buying food for the family. Frightening even. I started dreading it when I was a child, of ten or twelve, and realized it would be my responsibility somedayI literally almost fainted, started fainting, in a check out line when I miscalculated in my checkbook and thought I was a hundred dollars overdrawn and didn't have enough money in the bank to cover the groceries in the cart in front of me... as I was about third in line to the register. I think somebody caught me as I was sinking and I recovered before going totally out.Two of my fears about growing up was having to fill out income tax returns and what if, by some mistake, I didn't have enough money to pay for my purchases at the check out counter? It was horrifying for me to think of it happening to anyone. What would I do? That was a somehow dreadfully humiliating thought to me. It would mean failing a public math and calculation test, which I was sorry at, anyway, and being punished, also publicly, and embarrassingly so, for failing it. Having to put back some of the family's food or supplies would mean, to me, failure at doing something drastically important that most people apparently did very well, or well enough, anyway. Anyway. I used a calculator for years when they became small and easily available. After years and years of shopping, and worrying a little less because I don't have a brood of growing children to nourish all the time. I've learned to keep an amazingly accurate total in my head. A couple of years or so ago, I noticed something more drastic than usual happening and nobody was saying much about it. Did you know it used to make the evening news, at least in Texas, when a loaf of bread went up very much? My regular list bill was creeping up noticeably, high and fast... a bit more than creeping, in the scheme of things. Probably a noticeable difference about every two months. That was more than average.Then the gas thing and the crazy mortgage thing and everything went to hell in a hand basket, for sure, after that.Are we being socially and financially manipulated somehow ... or just robbed, by the oil companies, medical and pharmaceutical industries, the prison industry, banking and investment industry, government taxation, or other powers that be?But something I've noticed, at least around here, food prices seem to be decreasing, a noticeable bit, very lately, on some basics. I found that encouraging. 
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Comment #24 posted by FoM on March 23, 2009 at 05:48:49 PT
Paint with light 
Thank you. 
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Comment #23 posted by Paint with light on March 22, 2009 at 22:12:08 PT
FoM
I agree.Change can be good.Equal with alcohol.
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on March 21, 2009 at 10:18:27 PT
The Crash
Just my thoughts. I am not into the stock market but I knew this was coming for a few years. I watched Flip This House and other shows like Property Ladder and wondered how people could ask so much money for a house and then I couldn't figure out how anyone could afford a payment on a half a million dollar house. Lumber and building materials cost almost the same no matter where you purchase the material. I saw greed and greed always fails in the end. The cost of a car blew me away too. How could anyone afford a $25,000 or more car? That's all for now. 
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Comment #21 posted by John Tyler on March 21, 2009 at 09:56:54 PT
the downturn
I agree dongenero. The insiders saw this thing coming. I work with a lady whose husband had some contact in the financial world. The word was coming out from them on the grapevine several years ago to watch out, because the poop would be hitting the fan sooner or later. An overheated real estate market and bad loans spell disaster. 
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Comment #20 posted by John Tyler on March 21, 2009 at 09:42:55 PT
Madoff2
Why is he the only one taking the fall? He had 5,000 accounts. How could he compile 5,000 phony monthly account statements all by himself? He had a total fraud operation going on. There are lots of other guilty folks involved who need attention too.
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on March 21, 2009 at 06:30:48 PT
NPR: Medical Marijuana Back From The Shadows
Audio for this story will be available at approx. 12:00 p.m. ETWeekend Edition Saturday, March 21, 2009 When Attorney General Eric Holder announced that drug enforcement authorities will end raids on medical marijuana suppliers in California, patients and activists cheered. Thirteen states, including Maine, have adopted medicinal marijuana laws similar to California's. Susan Sharon, from Maine Public Radio, reports on how those states might work toward regulating medical marijuana.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102205799
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on March 21, 2009 at 06:14:53 PT
Paint with Light
I was born in North Carolina and raised in eastern PA. Now I live in Ohio which is way different then PA on the east coast not western PA which is more like southern Ohio. I think rchandar might not see the prejudice he sees in the extreme north east. Since he is a teacher he might think of relocating in my opinion.
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Comment #17 posted by Paint with Light on March 21, 2009 at 00:10:36 PT
The South
I don't remember anyone coming on here and criticizing people from the north just because they are from the north.I have seen a lot of the opposite done over the years.I have never supported racism in any form.There are a lot of people in the south with outdated ideas on a lot of things but that isn't everyone. Cheney, Dahmer, "Son of Sam", John Wayne Gacy, Etc.I don't think there are any southeners in that bunch but that doesn't lead me to think of the North as the land of serial killers.I just think we should be careful when we judge anyone based on where they live.That is similar to what the prohibitionists have been doing to us for years.They judge us based solely on the substance we use.I am from the south(Tennessee) and I will put my support for legalizing cannabis up against anyone's.I am not trying to start a argument or cause any negative vibes with anyone here. Just be careful when judging a whole region.I'm sorry if I took some of the comments over the years as more personal than they were meant.Missisippi has a more liberal stance on cannabis than several northern states.Sure we talk slow, move slow, and sometimes think slow, but a lot of us have been ahead of the national mindthink for a long time.Like a friend of mine said in a song, "Buzzard Blues","I'm not dead Mr. Buzzard, I'm just movin' slow".Equal with alcohol is the solution.
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Comment #16 posted by Hope on March 20, 2009 at 20:02:08 PT
DEA employs over 10,800 people
I think it would be great if these investigators started investigating food processing and and pharmaceutical drug production hidden out all over the world. Like actually going to India and China and inspecting how they make our food and drugs and toys. Remember that often used drug that was being made in filthy vats under the most vile conditions in China? Something about rendering pig guts. We need inspectors like that. We don't need what the DEA does to people now.Maybe they could be put to work actually solving some of the unsolved murders and thefts going on in this country. They keep it pretty quiet that people apparently get away with murder more often than not.That's disgusting.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on March 20, 2009 at 15:29:56 PT
Marijuana Advocates Applaud Drug Policy Shift
March 20, 2009 
 
 URL: http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNews/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/1858/ItemId/9786/Default.aspx
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on March 20, 2009 at 14:51:41 PT
rchandar 
If it's that bad can't you try to get a job up in one of the northern states? I don't understand why some of the southern states don't like us up in northern states and cling to a different way of thinking. We are good people and love to laugh and live and let live and things like that. 
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Comment #13 posted by rchandar on March 20, 2009 at 14:31:16 PT:
Obama, Holder and Beyond
I am heartened, moved, do applaud this wonderful decision in our favor. Over the years, I have seen on this site many decisions against terminally ill patients who were punished for the sake of pure ideology......as Gandhi would say, "I'm glad, but it will not be enough." I guess that here, in the South, these changes remain far from even raising their head above water. I guess I dislike the South, it's unmovable conservatism, it's pride in pure racism and injustices that give privileges to those who basically messed up the entire region, spewed hatred and crude intolerance as "the norm" which everyone has to follow.Will it ever change?
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Comment #12 posted by Sam Adams on March 20, 2009 at 13:01:26 PT
More
The DEA even has its own air force! >>>The DEA Aviation Division or Office of Aviation Operations (OA) (formerly Aviation Section) is an airborne division based in Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Texas. The current OA fleet consists of 106 aircraft and 124 DEA pilots
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Comment #11 posted by Sam Adams on March 20, 2009 at 12:58:57 PT
Violins are playing
Oh how the mainstream media worships The State!The poor DEA - their resources are stretched SO thin...from Wikipedia:"With a budget exceeding 2.415 billion dollars, DEA employs over 10,800 people, including over 5,500 Special Agents."The best thing we could do is legalize cannabis and lay off all 10,800 DEA employees - immediately. Talk about "non-essential government employees"!!!
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on March 20, 2009 at 12:55:12 PT
observer
No time to sit back and think it's over. Many a good thing can get stopped right in it's tracks without us realizing it happened like during Carter. I had no faith in Clinton but I did in Carter.
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Comment #9 posted by observer on March 20, 2009 at 12:49:10 PT
re: Our Time Has Come I Believe
Yes, FoM, this is quite something to behold. I was optimistic also during the Carter years. And the Clinton years too... But let's hope this time around the political calculations come up in favor of simply not jailing people for cannabis. We have to hold their feet to the fire - until U.S. federal cannabis prohibitions are repealed and states can go their own way, just like they do for alcohol. Cannabis users' own complacency could be the biggest obstacle to reform, now. 
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on March 20, 2009 at 11:05:25 PT
Renewed Interest in Industrial Hemp is Smoking Hot
March 20, 2009URL: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blog/7054-renewed-interest-industrial-hemp-smoking-hot-19676.html
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on March 20, 2009 at 10:57:10 PT
HempWorld 
We had company and I just saw your post and turned on CNBC just in time to hear a lady say that the marijuana documentary was the highest rated one they have ever done! That was so great to hear. Thank you.
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Comment #6 posted by HempWorld on March 20, 2009 at 10:42:17 PT
Tune in to CNBC Channel 24 now
They are talking about the US Marijuana Industry ...
On a mission from God!
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Comment #5 posted by dongenero on March 20, 2009 at 10:06:35 PT
people knew about the coming economy
I know a former trader, well still private trader, that has been forecasting all of this for the last several years. Most around him didn't listen. This guy knew. In public comments, the expert analysts all act like this is a surprise which no one saw coming. Well, the honest and knowledgeable saw it coming. I have no doubt that many more knew and exploited the situation. Others orchestrated the situation. People who work in trading and within the financial system knew this was brewing. They saw it coming. Of that I am certain. 
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on March 20, 2009 at 09:46:14 PT
Madoff
Puh-leeze, enough with Madoff. He was only the fall guy for the Ponzi scheme.MANY people in the SEC and other auditors and regulatory people MUST have been aware of and complicit in Madoff's activities - in exchange for their cut. With the size of the ripoff I would guess that the complicity ran to the highest levels of the SEC.I'm sure that was the quid pro quo - we'll ignore your ripoff scheme as long as you give us our cut and promise to take all the heat if we ever get caught.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on March 20, 2009 at 09:31:42 PT
Jerusalem Post: High Times
March 19, 2009URL: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237392664617&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on March 20, 2009 at 09:26:27 PT
Regulate and legalize it already ...
God! I can't believe how obsessed the USA is with MARIJUANA!Oh, my ... and Vioxx killed over 130,000 Americans in just a few years, conviently forgotten!
On a mission from God!
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on March 20, 2009 at 09:21:42 PT
Our Time Has Come I Believe
Excerpt: For the first time since President Richard Nixon discounted the recommendation of experts he had appointed that marijuana be decriminalized nearly 40 years ago, a change in policy may be on the horizon.
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